House Appropriations Committee approves budget-adjustment bill after debate over hotel-based housing program

The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday reviewed a web report showing House changes to the proposed Budget Adjustment Act and voted to approve the House draft after debate over homeless housing supports and specific line-item adjustments.

The committee's web report, presented by Emily Byrne of the Joint Fiscal Office, outlined where the House altered the governor's recommended budget adjustment, including technical changes to judicial mental-health evaluation contracts, a $1 million reduction in the education line for state-placed students, and shifts to one-time health-related funding that reallocate a $4 million governor recommendation into a $10 million Department of Vermont Health Access line and new provider-stabilization and reconciliation payments. The committee approved draft 205986 on an 8-3 roll call.

The web report: what changed

"What you have in front of you is a web report that now includes the House changes to the bill," Emily Byrne said, describing the document that the committee reviewed. Byrne said the report shows: a technical increase for court-ordered mental-health evaluations balanced by a decrease in service-level agreement costs; a $1,000,000 reduction in the estimate for education costs for state-placed students; and several one-time adjustments in the health section. Byrne also noted a print artifact in the copy provided that will be corrected on the public website.

Major one-time changes described in the report include a $10,000,000 Department of Vermont Health Access line for what the presenter described as provider stabilization grants and a $11,000,000 alternate-payment-model reconciliation payment to Brattleboro Retreat. Byrne said a $14,000,000 item for the treasurer's office is returned to bond redemption in the House changes.

Debate over General Assistance hotel program

Several committee members expressed frustration that the committee of conference or negotiations with the administration had not settled parameters to continue the state's hotel-based General Assistance (GA) housing program. Representative Giacoboni urged support for the House draft on humanitarian grounds and the availability of funds.

"I have to vote for this because I can't imagine I can't imagine Vermont not caring about its people when we can do this without raising more taxes or increasing the budget as the funds already exist," Giacoboni said, adding concern about roughly 400 children who could be displaced under the narrower proposals discussed in negotiations.

Other members described proposals from the administration and the Senate that would have narrowed eligibility to fewer households. Committee members referenced estimates shared in negotiations that one alternate proposal would reduce coverage from roughly 1,400 hotel rooms to nearer 1,000 and would limit eligibility to children, families with children, and a smaller group of people with disabilities.

Representative Harrison said she was disappointed the panel could not reach agreement and questioned how people with certain disabilities would be chosen to remain eligible while others would not. She warned of strains on local service providers and municipal capacity if funding or eligibility were narrowed.

Vote and next steps

Committee Chair Trevor called the roll on draft 205986. The recorded vote was: Representative Blumley — yes; Representative Dickenson — no; Representative Harrison — no; Representative Consenca — yes; Representative LaRoche — no; Representative Roeck — yes; Representative Nigro — yes; Representative Spoerl — yes; Sam Stevens — yes; Representative Giacoboni — yes; Representative Schott — yes. The tally was 8 yes, 3 no; the motion passed.

Chair remarks and schedule

After the vote, the chair thanked members and said the committee will hand the bill off to the floor and begin work on the FY 2026 budget, with plans to reconvene later the same day for continuing work.

Ending

Committee members said the work on remaining FY 2026 priorities will continue and that staff will provide additional materials as they prepare for the next round of budget discussions and negotiations.